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Bad Pharma

There should be a legal requirement for data from all clinical trials to be published, says a damning report from a UK government committee. At present, pharmaceutical firms can shelve trials that don’t work and publish only those that do. The report particularly mentioned the money spent stockpiling Tamiflu, even though not all trials into the drug’s effectiveness have been released.

SpaceX’s year takes off

SpaceX’s first launch of 2014 went off without a hitch on Monday, putting a Thai commercial satellite into orbit. It marks the beginning of an important year for the firm, which has a backlog of launches. SpaceX also plans to fly three resupply missions to the International Space Station and test its new, more powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy.

Smoking anniversary

Fifty years ago this week Luther Terry, US surgeon general, told the world that smoking causes illness and death. Since then the number of people who smoke in the US has fallen by half to around 18 per cent, but it is still the leading cause of preventable death.

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Sizzling Oz

Flaming Nora! 2013 was Australia’s hottest year on record. Temperatures across all states exceeded the long-term average by 1.2 °C, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said last week. For a record seven consecutive days last January, temperatures exceeded 39 °C nationally.

A non-identical twin

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet with the same mass as Earth. The planet, called KOI-314c, is 60 per cent larger than Earth and is thought to be more gas than rock – so it is unlikely to be conducive to life. Its unusual properties challenge assumptions that any Earth-mass planet would have an Earth-like composition.